Established in 2005, Sakhawat Centre strives to achieve its multifarious objectives of facilitating quality education, social transformation and upliftment of destitute.  Shazia Khan reports.

Sakhawat Centre is perhaps one of the most networked private charitable organisation in the state. It has a vast network of around 200 centres scattered across the state, wherein thousands of orphans and destitute and provided help. The centre also provides support to underprivileged people to better their lives.  
Established in 2005, Sakhawat Centre is a constituent of Iqbal Memorial Trust.
Thousands of people killed in last 20 years of turmoil have left a bigger number of orphans, widows and destitute in the state. Most of these survive in miserable conditions.
Chairman Iqbal Memorial Trust Dr Yousuf – ul- Umar says that due to enormous problems faced by the survivors a “disastrous situation” can emerge in future which may upset the whole social dynamics in the state.
 “To help these destitute economically and contribute in their rehabilitation in a respectable manner, the Trust established Sakhawat Centre to institutionalize the social service activities and make it a people’s movement,” said Dr Umar.   
For orphans the centre provides financial assistance in their homes under the guidance of their relatives. “We don’t prefer to encourage orphanage culture in valley. To gather orphans from different areas of state and keep them together in an orphanage has its own social demerits. They grow with a different kind of mentality which is not good for their future,” said Umar.
 It supports the education of 6000 needy students, mostly orphans. From school goers to students pursuing professional educations the centre provides financial aid from Rupees 5000 to Rupees20,000 per annum.  
 In addition to that every year it conducts “Merit/ Merit Cum Means Scholarship Test”  which have helped around 500 orphan and poor students  to earn scholarship worth Rs 5000 each. “The basic aim behind conducting the test is create an environment of competition around these students. It does not only help them to develop their mental ability but also created a sense in them to participate and win it,” says Umar.
Besides education, the centre is also taking care of their health and over all personality development. The institute conducts regular medical check ups of students and provides them required medicines. For personality development the institute has held programmes like interactive session with experts, excursions and camps.  “All these activities helped to create a sense of belonging among these children,” says Umar.  
Realising the importance of the self sustenance the centre also provides vocational training programmes and helps in creating income generating units.  For many poor and needy girls the centre has assisted in conducting their marriages. “Apart from financial aid we help these girls in terms of cloths and other items for marriage”, says Yousuf -ul- Umar.
While the conflict remains a major source of misery to people, natural or made disasters add to the problem. Disasters need emergency response and the centre hasn’t shied away from such responsibilities. Umar says that after the earthquake in 2005 the trust spent more than a crore rupees on earth quake victims. “It was followed by helping Khundru causalities in 2007 and recently in north Kashmir,” said Umar
Understanding the requirement of different people is very important for a charitable organisation. At some places creating a drinking water facility may be the basic need. “In last two years we have dug up around thirty eight wells in different backward areas of valley where water is not easily available.”
 For all its expenses, Sakhawat Centre depends on donations. Its annul budget is more than two crore rupees. Though the institute is affiliated with many government and non governmental organisations but most of its requirements are met by local donors.
While the centre is doing a commendable job in meeting educational needs of the orphans, it also plans to extend its work to other pressing sectors like health. It has a long term plan to build a hospital where poor and needy people could receive better medical facility at affordable prices. In addition, the centre is also working to establish a small scale industry where the children it supports can work to sustain their lives.    

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